Oh, it wasn't that long ago, August 4th to be exact, that I was pondering the idea that my son my actually be a protege'. Was he brilliant? He walked at 8 months and started understanding language not long after. But alas, I've been brought down to earth. Not that I think my baby is an idiot...but perhaps he closer to "normal" than "genius". That realization hit me when his pediatrician suggested he go to speech therapy because at 17 months old he had a vocabulary that consisted of zero words. That's right...none! I had been a little worried before the doctor's visit. I read all the latest on the internet and keep up with the age he's supposed to hit developmental milestones. But I had been comforted (self comforted) by the fact that he wasn't having a problem understanding language. He could follow all my instructions..."throw this in the garbage", "close the door", find your shoes". Heck he could even point out different family members in photos. So I knew it wasn't a "mental" delay, he just wasn't actually saying words yet. He was saying a whole lot of something. Sounded like cantonese, but not sure where he would've picked that up. Anyway, he seemed to be having very detailed conversations in some language just not one I recognized.
So one month ago, my doctor brought me down to earth with the mention of "therapy". I immediately went home and started Cruz on intense word training. It worked, a little. He can now say "mama, da, yeah, juice (although he says it more like jce...no vowels) and bye. I think he said "I love you" and "airplane", but I couldn't get him to repeat it. So a 5 word vocabulary is still considered "behind" for an 18 month old. We go to the doctor again on Monday and I've decided if she recommends speech therapy, we'll embrace it, instead of dread it. From what I've heard, a few weeks or months in speech therapy will make his vocabulary explode! Then I may long for those "quieter" days.
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